Taoist Temple
Cut away from the noise and hustle of the street, this building is designed to be a calm center in a chaotic world. This structure is fairly large, covering a quarter of a city block. Designed in a square around a center garden, the space above the garden is open to the sky. Surrounding the center courtyard are high, peaked lattices that help cut down the outside noise and offer privacy from all directions except directly above. The entry way is a pair of large, arched doors that are approximately twelve feet high and fifteen feet across. A small tunnel leads towards the central courtyard of the temple. The walls are tastefully decorated, with symbols and Chinese characters. Those familiar with the culture will recognize the theme as serenity, peace, calm and so forth. All of which help set the tone for a secluded spot to practice Taoism. There are small plaques mounted on the walls, in various languages, explaining the concepts and tenets of the Eternal Tao. Along the outer edge of the building are various rooms, sanctuaries, shrines and rooms for meditation and discussion. Most of the rooms are kept open unless in use. Roughly half the rooms have solid, oak doors, while others have what appear to be doors made merely from paper with designs painted upon them. The building's center and focus is a large garden surrounded by a wooden railing about four feet high. There seem to be two openings in the railing to allow visitors and gardeners in. There is a winding path that offers the best displays of the various trees, bushes, flowers and even a koi pond. In the center of the garden is a stone garden, where patterns have been raked into straight lines that have been marred only by three large stones, obviously part of the overall pattern from the way the lines alter around their placement. There are two benches next to the stone garden, facing each other across the finely sculpted sand. The overall feeling one gets in this place of serenity and calm. That it would be easy to find peace with one's self and the world in general in such a place. Details The Taoist Temple, through years of Zen mastery, has developed a sort of shield against aggression and violence. The Monks who tend the gardens, and maintain the building have a belief that nothing can disturb the peace of the Temple, and it is very true. While within the Temple the follow stats apply: *Shifters: +2 Difficulty to Frenzy *Vampires: -2 difficulty to Frenzy. *Mages: +2 Difficulty on any Magic within the Temple on offensive Magick*. Anyone wishing to perform ANY aggressive action must make a Willpower roll versus 8 for EVERY action they wish to commit. An aggressive action is one the MONKS would decree as something against the Peace of the Temple. Mages get to deal with both the Willpower, and the +diff roll on aggressive magick, and 'offensive' magick is anything that any character would normally not allow (Even if they don't know it exists.) This includes scans, corr-spying, etc etc. Recent Events *After the Caern Wars, many Garou retreated to this safe haven to heal their wounds and supress their rage. Category:POI/LATMA Category:Chinatown Category:Hangout